Street Lighting Under Consideration for Mosby School Extension

The Clarke County School Board said Tuesday night that the new high school construction project is under budget (Click to enlarge)

With construction of the new high school 40% complete and running below its budget, School Board members turned their attention to the planned horticultural greenhouse and lighting issues on Mosby Boulevard.

With an original price tag of just over $23M, the net of project change orders so far have saved the county $86K. The savings have been derived from the substitution of aluminum electrical conductors in place of copper feeders and through the installation of a foundation slab rather than running the lines overhead.

The School Board is also implementing another cost avoidance strategy moving forward with drilling wells for irrigation. The well water will allow the school system to avoid purchasing the irrigation water from the Town of Berryville. In moving forward with the strategy the School Board has ordered that the greenhouse design include a water-well irrigation system.

At Tuesday night’s School Board meeting design sketches of the greenhouse, including landscape shrubbery and privacy fencing were presented.

According to documents presented at last night’s meeting Virginia Department of Transportation anticipates design approval for Mosby Boulevard in March 2011. Although VDOT says Mosby plans are continuing to be refined and detailed, it still on schedule for an April field inspection.

VDOT says that it is currently developing a construction schedule for the project and a refining cost estimates. As part of the cost estimate process, VDOT says that it is proceeding with lighting design for the entire project, including the roundabout and Mosby Blvd. VDOT has met with utility companies and provided a lighting design layout for review and comment.

CCHS greenhouse design will include shrubbery and privacy fencing (Click to enlarge)Three board privacy fence design to be used for the new greenhouse (Click to enlarge)

Berryville School Board member Jennifer Welliver expressed support for lighting the entire length of Mosby Boulevard even if it means providing additional easement space to VDOT on the north side of the roadway.

“This is a safety issue for students and residents that will be walking along the road” Welliver said. “Kids will be walking there at night after football games and in the morning on the way to school. Mosby really needs to have streetlights.”

Comments

“…â€œKids will be walking there at night after football games and in the morning on the way to school. Mosby really needs to have streetlights.â€…”

Really? I thought the football stadium was staying across the street at the same spot it’s been for years. Has something changed?

CDN Editor: Students walking from Feltner Stadium’s current location to Berryville Estates and points east after games may elect to use Mosby Blvd once it is completed rather than walking along Main Street.

“…CDN Editor: Students walking from Feltner Stadiumâ€™s current location to Berryville Estates and points east after games may elect to use Mosby Blvd once it is completed rather than walking along Main Street….”

So shouldn’t that path on Main street be lit up as Ms. Welliver desires the Mosby extension to be lit? Kids have been using that path for YEARS and the lighting issue never came up berfore. Now she’s willing to give up even more land to get the lighting she says a lack of is a safety issue?

It’s not lit up like Ms. Welliver wants Mosby to be lit. It’s still hard to see folks walking that path at night, even with all the construction lights.

My point is that the lighting on Main street should be just the same as what is desired for the Mosby extension. Main Street is FAR busier traffic wise. I just find it amusing that the lighting on Main Street with all it’s heavy traffic is thought to be acceptable, but the lighting for a street that doesn’t even exist yet and we have no idea of the foot traffic that will utilize it is creating such hubbub.

It seems like she is thinking proactively, and also – perhaps – thinking about making that part of Mosby look more like the existing part of Mosby. I agree with you – the lights along West Main Street by Rosemont and so forth could be enhanced…but there’s no money for those upgrades. Now, if you win the lottery, then by all means offer to have some installed.

I took a little drive last night. The path on Main street is not lit. It receives VERY LITTLE IF ANY residual light from the street lights that are spaced at almost every other pole and are designed to light the street, not the walking path on Main.

It is surprising they are not reclaiming rainwater as the source for greenhouse irrigation. In this day and age of â€œgoing greenâ€ one would think this would have been addressed. Instead of using precious ground water for plant watering the run off from the school building could be captured and utilized. Maybe itâ€™s not too late for Clarkeâ€™s Natural Resource Planner to assist in this endeavor? One could only hope.